Some thoughts about anti-virus software for Linux

[Pete Ryland]

I don't think this is quite right.

Simplifying things, let's consider all the positions of all atoms as points in a simple cartesian space.  This can be expressed in binary, then compressed and you get one very long binary string.  Consider that as a fraction (put 0. in front of it) and place three atoms such that the fraction of the distances between them is that fraction and hey presto!

Obviously this fails for a number of reasons but the point is there are more ways to represent things than you may at first think (in this case assuming infinite space).

Sorry for the top post (sent from a crap phone).

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: "Cybe R. Wizard" <cybe_r_wizard at earthlink.net>

Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:39:22 
To: <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>; Human sounds<sounder at lists.ubuntu.com>
Subject: Re: Some thoughts about anti-virus software for Linux


Tony Arnold <tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk>  said:
> Mario,
> 
> Mario Vukelic wrote:
> 
> > Yeah. "in theory" just as in theory if I knew the precise location
> > and momentum of every atom in the universe then I could use
> > Newton's laws to reveal the entire course of cosmic events, past
> > and future ;)  
> 
> Sorry this is OT, but I got to thinking about this! I don't think your
> theory is possible.
> 
> Firstly, Newton's laws are probably insufficient for these
> calculations. You probably need to take account of relativistic and
> quantum effects.
> 
> Secondly, as it takes more than one atom to store the position of an
> atom, then it's not possible to store the positions of all atoms in
> the universe!
> 
> Which made me think there is an absolute maximum on the amount of data
> storage there can be in the universe. Assuming we can store one bit
> per atom and there are about 10^70 atoms in the universe, this gives
> an absolute maximum storage capacity of 10^70 bits!
> 
> Besides if you did run such a program, it would run for 7 million
> years and produce the answer 42:-)
> 
> Regards,
> Tony.

It also violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
I'm certain.
But 42 is /still/ the answer.

(Sent to chit-chat and tech, followups directed to chit-chat)

Cybe R. Wizard
-- 
Nice computers don't go down.
	Larry Niven, Steven Barnes
		"The Barsoom Project"

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